


The Jade Ninja and the Son of Garmadon

by Red_Lion



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe, No Beta We Die Like Morro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29646225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Lion/pseuds/Red_Lion
Summary: AU in which Harumi is the green ninja, and Lloyd is the Quiet One.[ratings/warnings/tags subject to change]
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. The Jade Princess

“Princess Harumi. There is a guest for you.” Hutchins said, sliding the door to Harumi’s room open with one hand, the other behind his back in that regal pose he always kept. 

Harumi stood up, brushing off her dress as she did. She stretched, her body sore from sitting hunched over her books. Though the Emperor and Empress told her that young girls ought to learn proper manners, she preferred to sit on the floor in her room, doing as she pleased. 

She peered in her mirror, patting her hair flat. She hadn’t been aware that she would have to see guests until a few seconds ago, so she had not put on her makeup or even one of the kimonos she was supposed to wear to meet guests. Harumi hoped that her current attire would be enough. Who could have possibly been granted an audience with the Emperor and Empress on such short notice that Harumi had not been made aware until now? 

Hutchins had waited patiently for her, and she followed him through the palace. As she walked, she forced her face to return to a neutral expression, though her mind wandered through a growing maze of questions. 

He led her to the throne room, where the Emperor and Empress sat, completely at home among the gold and jewels. Harumi stood up a little straighter in their presence as Hutchins introduced her to the guest. His beard suggested that he might be a very old man, though his stance was strong and he did not lean heavily upon his walking stick. 

“Princess Harumi, this is Sensei Wu.” Hutchins said. The old man looked upwards, and Harumi viewed his face. Though he was old, he still had an ageless quality to his face, in the way that Harumi could only tell he was old, but not how old. He did not appear tired in his old age, rather, he appeared wise beyond any man’s years. 

“Is it true that you have an elemental power?” Wu asked. Harumi nodded nervously, afraid that she had stared at his face for too long. She quickly averted her eyes, studying his staff instead. “May I have a demonstration?” 

Harumi nodded again, taking her eyes off his strange staff. She widened her stance as far as her attire would allow, feeling the gazes of the Emperor, Empress, and Hutchins bearing down upon her. She adjusted her stance with unease, looking up to Wu for some sort of signal. Wu nodded gently. Harumi took it as her signal. 

She began to panic when she could not begin to feel anything. Three sharp gazes burned into her and she felt heat rising in her face. In the end, her panic was unjustified. Power began to surge within her, and it was all she could do to guide it. She had been cautious with it before, almost afraid of it. After all, it was unfamiliar to her. It glowed a pretty kind of golden green, spinning in strands like delicate threads in front of her. It’s glow was reflected around the room, in every gold-gilded surface, making the room seem so much brighter than before. The Emperor and Empress looked sideways at it, turning away as if to shield their faces from a light much brighter than it. Even Hutchins closed his visible eye, but Wu simply gave her a thoughtful nod. 

“You may stop now.” Wu said. Harumi let the power dissipate into the air, hunching her shoulders as all tension left her body. She quickly stood up straight again, feeling the unspoken disapproval from the Emperor and Empress. “Are you familiar with the prophecy of the green ninja?” 

Harumi couldn’t be sure whether Wu addressed the Emperor and Empress or her, so she opted to stay silent, clasping her hands together in front of her body. Had her demonstration been good enough for Wu? Nobody had given her the opportunity to explore the strange power yet. 

The Emperor gave his answer. Yes and no, they were familiar with ancient Ninjago folklore, but they did not accept it as full truth. They were modern people, he said, though they came from old blood. 

And Wu gave his revelation.

“Our daughter is a princess, not a ninja.” The Emperor said firmly, once Wu had finished speaking. “And she is too young to be on her own.”

Wu began to debate with the Emperor, though Harumi knew that there was nothing he could say to change the Emperor’s mind. He had delivered his ultimatum, and he was not the kind of man to change his mind. 

Something changed. Something Wu had said had gotten to the Emperor, and he finally caved. Harumi wished she had paid more attention to their exchange! What could he have possibly said? She looked back and forth between the two in surprise. 

Go get your things, Harumi. You are to train under Sensei Wu. 

She followed Hutchins back to her room in a daze, hearing words echo in her mind but not fully processing them. 

Hutchins saw her to her room, standing in the doorway as he usually did. Harumi stood in the centre of the room, staring out her window towards the city, her mind full of words but no thoughts. 

“What do you want to do, Harumi?” Hutchins broke the silence. “There is still choice in it for you.” 

“I-“ Harumi began, with no particular words in mind. She shook her head. 

“I know you are unhappy here.” 

That was true. She did not fit in among the gold and jewels of the throne room, nor did she enjoy the intricacies of the palace life. Though, what was her choice? She stood at a crossroads, but she had not made a decision of this volume before in her life. Her days were planned to the minute. How could she choose her path? Destiny, after all, had chosen it. She had caught that much of Wu’s words. Destiny had chosen her to bear the power of the green ninja. She had to answer its call, but Hutchins made it seem like there was a choice. No. There wasn’t. 

“I want to go.” Her voice came strong and steady, to her relief and surprise. She had said the words with so much ease, she could believe that they truly reflected her desires. 

In her mirror, she saw Hutchins nod. 

“Very well, then.” He said. “I wish you luck.” 

She left with Wu, now following him instead of Hutchins through the streets of Ninjago. She had bowed her goodbyes to the Emperor and Empress and hugged Hutchins goodbye. He had returned her embrace and told her how he’d miss her. She smiled, but couldn’t stop herself from crying. The Emperor and Empress remained stoic in their expressions and stances, saying some things that Harumi was quickly forgetting as she walked behind Wu. She carried her own things, just some plainer clothes and her journal. She had not taken her fancy kimonos, nor much of her jewellery, not that she thought she would miss them. 

Wu walked slowly. Harumi did not expect him to be in much of a hurry. She followed him, having not much choice but to trust him. The streets of Ninjago City were much bigger from the ground. She felt the stares of each passerby as they gave her a passing look, afraid that somebody would see her and recognise the Jade Princess. She told herself that that fear was foolish. She had gotten dressed in front of her mirror in plain clothes, just a green jacket and pants which more or less matched it, with a white shirt underneath. She had done her hair in a simple bun and kept it in place with two black hair sticks, for lack of a regular hair tie. 

She followed him for a long time, beginning to grow concerned as the sun grew lower in the sky. They were coming upon the edge of the city and her legs began to ache from walking for so long. She did not dare speak up, out of fear of disrespecting Wu. Destiny kept them together for now, but only destiny, so they walked in silence. She had many questions, but one rang in her mind louder than any others. What had he said to change her father’s mind? Perhaps she would never ask. 

Finally, they approached their destination. Harumi stared, wide-eyed, into the darkness. The sun had set completely, and the top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds and shadow. 

“Up?” She asked, her voice quiet and hoarse. A staircase twisted around the mountain, carved into the stone and winding their way beyond the point where Harumi could no longer see. 

“Yes.” Wu said, taking the first step up the mountain. “Then, your training will begin.” 

He started up the mountain, but Harumi stopped to stare after him just a little while longer. 

There was no use waiting. The longer she waited, the longer she simply put off the inevitable. She had already said her goodbyes. 

No way out but forwards. In this case, forwards and up. 

She took the first few steps running, holding her bag firmly across her shoulder. Running up the first few steps, she felt like she was flying. In the palace, she could never run. Her shoes were uncomfortable to do anything but walk in, and the Empress would scold her unladylike behaviour if she took them off to run down the halls. 

After the first steps, her tiredness caught up to her. She began to walk, and soon, she had to fight for every step. Still, the staircase stretched forwards, around the mountain. Every time she rounded a turn, there were more stairs beyond it. The spiral did not seem to have an end, and the only measure of Harumi’s progress was the growing distance between her and the ground. Whenever the wind blew, she clung tighter to the mountain. She had not been afraid like this before, but soon the ground was out of sight and she refused to let herself look down anymore. She continued to fight for every step, trusting that she was moving forward. 

Dawn came. Harumi collapsed before the red-painted double doors, her heart beating out of her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut, wholly focused on her laboured breathing and pounding heart. The doors loomed before her, illuminated by the first light of the young day. Though her legs threatened to give out beneath her, she forced herself to her feet once more. 

Pride washed over her like a wave once she realised her achievement. She had made it up the mountain. She hadn’t quit, she hadn’t stopped moving forward. A smile crept onto her face and she began to laugh. She laughed in relief and pride at her achievement, and in surprise at herself. She hadn’t quit! 

It gave her the strength to walk up to the door and knock. The wood was cool beneath her hand, but she did not lean upon it. The doors opened slowly. 

There had been times during her long upwards trek where she had doubted that she could become a ninja. Perhaps destiny had been wrong, and she was not the one worthy of the power she possessed. Every time the thought had occurred to her, she had looked down and wondered if the path down would be easier than the path in front of her, but every time the thought had occurred to her, she had pushed it away.   


Now she stood before open doors, and she knew she was worthy to enter. 


	2. Forward and Up

Harumi’s training was far from easy. Though Wu had promised the Emperor that he’d take care of her, he spent day and night trying to break her. She hadn’t exactly fallen behind the boys, because she had never been in front of them to begin with. 

“Sensei! You never said the green ninja would be a girl.” Kai said, the first night Wu had gathered them all in the same place. 

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Nya asked. Wu had introduced her to the ninja and told her their names and elemental powers. They all seemed older than Harumi, though Nya appeared about her age. 

“Nothing!” Kai protested as Nya glared at him. “I was just expecting…” 

“You wanted to be the green ninja, Kai.” Zane said. “And you’re disappointed that destiny chose her, not you.” 

“Well, all the pictures on the scroll had masks on. Nothing to say the green ninja couldn't be a girl.” Jay shrugged. 

“You saw the scroll?” Wu raised his voice and Jay flinched. 

“No- I mean- yes? Just a peek. It was an accident.” 

“You seem familiar.” Cole said, interrupting before either Wu or Jay could say something more. “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before.” 

“We’ve travelled all over Ninjago. Realistically, we have probably seen her before.” Zane said. 

“No. Like she’s someone we’re supposed to know.” Cole frowned. “I just can’t remember. Harumi…” 

“Princess Harumi. Daughter of the Emperor and Empress of Ninjago.” Zane said. All the ninja turned to look at him, then Harumi. She felt like she was melting under their intense glare. 

“A princess is gonna be the green ninja?” Kai stared. “Now I’ve seen it all.” 

“Welcome to the team, Princess.” Jay said. 

“Just- just Harumi, please.” She smiled weakly, hugging her arms across her chest. 

“Alright then, Harumi.” 

The other ninja were kind, but that did not change the fact that no matter how hard Harumi tried, her teammates always seemed to be one step ahead of her. Wu insisted that she should not be discouraged, but it was hard to keep a high spirit. 

The other ninja surrounded her, holding their weapons between themselves and her. Each was poised to attack, circling slowly so Harumi could get a view of each one and start to guess who would make the first move. The sun began to cast the long shadows of dusk within the monastery walls, and Harumi could barely focus on one of the ninja at a time. She adjusted her stance, suddenly too conscious about everything. Her hands felt too heavy to keep up in her guard, but she knew Wu was watching so she did not dare let them fall. 

Kai shouted and made the first move, attacking with his sword. Harumi instinctively jumped backwards, stumbling over her heavy feet and sloppily regaining her balance. Kai did not stop, advancing forward. This time, Harumi turned as she had practiced, dodging his attack. She tried to summon a scrap of strength to call on her powers again, but she was so utterly exhausted from the day that nothing came to her. 

Kai jumped backwards, and Harumi paused briefly until it hit her. He was giving another one of the ninja a chance to attack. None of the ninja in sight were moving towards, but she could see their eyes following her. No, something just behind her- 

From behind her, Cole swept her feet out from underneath her body in one swift motion. She had practiced falling, how to roll and get back to her feet, but all her training abandoned her and she fell to the ground. She laid there, staring up towards the sky and making no move back to her feet. Eventually, Cole extended a hand to help her up. She weakly took it, nearly collapsing into his body. 

“That will be enough for today.” Wu spoke up. “Go get some rest, ninja.” 

The others happily made their way inside, striking up a small conversation among themselves as they slid the door closed behind them. 

Harumi did not move from where she stood as Wu approached her. She tried to straighten herself, almost instinctively holding her hands together in front of her body before she remembered that she was no longer in the palace. Her hands hung awkwardly by her side. 

“I’m sorry, Sensei.” Harumi blurted out. “I know I’m supposed to be the green ninja, and I’m trying. I am.” 

“I am.” She repeated herself, choking on the words as she held back tears. She knew if she said any more, her tears would fall. 

“I know.” Wu reassured her, stopping in front of her. “I am proud of you, Harumi. The path forward is not often a straight line. Go get some rest. You deserve it.” 

She could not stop her tears from falling anymore, and Wu gave her a shoulder to cry on. Harumi couldn’t tell why she was crying, only that she thought she’d never be able to stop. 

That night, she collapsed on her bed unable to feel much of anything. 

The first day she had woken up in her room, she had been confused. Her legs and feet ached, and she had sat up completely disoriented. She got to sleep in her own room, thankfully. The place was small and the walls were plain, and the decorations were nice but humble. It had been a completely different world than the palace life she had lived for the first fifteen years of her life. 

Wu had given her clothes to wear to train. They were made for moving and comfortable enough to wear, much more practical than anything she had been allowed to wear around the palace. She had left her traditional makeup in the palace. Though she had brought some makeup of her own, she never found any time to wear it. Nya had shared some of her things with Harumi, so she had better things to tie her hair back with. 

As for the decoration of the room, Harumi had not brought anything with her that she could display, so the walls remained humble and bare. Now, she laid on her bed, staring at the same walls as before. 

“May I come in?” The voice of Zane came from just outside her door. 

“Sure.” Harumi called, sitting up on her elbows. 

He opened the door slowly with one hand, carefully balancing a tray on the other. 

“You didn’t come to dinner, so I thought I’d bring some here.” He said, placing the tray on her desk. 

“Thank you.” Harumi said, quickly crossing the room, pulling her chair out to where she could sit, and beginning to eat. She hadn’t realised how much training had starved her until she actually ate. At first, she had been painfully aware of how much training had drained her, but by now she was used to being tired all the time. It had become one of those things she didn’t notice until they were gone. 

“I hope my cooking is good enough. I’ve never cooked for a princess before.” Zane said. 

“Here-“ Harumi began, covering her mouth as she began to talk. She chewed a little bit more before swallowing. Whatever Zane had made- some kind of fish, maybe? Whatever it was- it was good. “Here, I don’t have to pretend that I like things. It’s good- really.” 

Zane smiled sadly, sitting on the floor beside her desk. 

“Thank you.” He said. 

They both searched themselves for words, and something unspoken went between them. Neither of them found exactly what they were looking for, so they sat in silence with the other’s company. After all, neither of them was good at speaking. 

I’ve never really gotten to just pass time with people like this before. I don’t think I’ve ever had real friends. It’s nice, I think, if we could be called friends. 

I can’t help but feel different from the other ninja. I cannot understand them. We are close, but… it is nice to have company. 

Weeks passed. Some days dawned bright, and the ninja rose with the sun, but some days dawned a sort of dark and gloomy which kept the ninja in their beds. Wu insisted they train no matter what the mood of the dawn was. They were training for something, he insisted. He soon told them what it was. 

Wu told them the tale of his brother Garmadon, who he feared had been stuck upon the path of evil for far too long. 

There was a little increased urgency to their training. It was not enough, though. Harumi could see it in how Wu watched them. He expected more than they could give, and Harumi pushed herself harder than ever. Wu reminded her that he could not be more proud of where she had come, but she began to have a hard time believing it. 

It soon came time to put their training to the test. 

The ninja moved as fast as they could, each on their own vehicle but more or less keeping pace with the group. Harumi led the team on Wu’s instructions, pushing forward through the scorching desert heat. They pushed onwards, just passing through the desert on the most direct way to their destination. 

Their destination appeared on the horizon, and the ninja pushed on just a little bit faster for the final stretch. Harumi squinted, leaning as far forward on her bike as she could without losing her balance. The engine strained, and Harumi almost audibly apologised. 

As soon as they could see their destination, they could see the smoke rising. They parked their vehicles as close as they were willing to risk, jumping down and running the rest of the way to the scene. She felt panic rising, tightening her throat and choking her. 

“What happened here?” Kai asked for her. They all stared, wide-eyed at the wreckage, the acrid smell of burning wood and something else foul filling the air. 

“Darkley’s boarding school.” Zane said. “Or it appears, what used to be Darkley’s boarding school.” 

“Darkley’s.” Jay wrinkled his nose. “Don’t they have a bad reputation?”

Zane nodded solemnly. 

They learned the details from the few survivors that they could recover. A terrorist attack, perhaps, or a prank gone horribly wrong. The disaster, whatever it’s nature had been, had been no accident. There had been something deliberate behind it, though what it was remained shrouded in mystery. Almost each survivor gave the same testimony, or said nothing at all. They had heard an explosion. The buildings began to collapse, the top floors completely burying the bottom as they fell. Any clues beneath the wreckage had certainly been destroyed, though the wreck was too dangerous to search for it. 

A fire burned somewhere within the ruins, black smoke rising to the sky like a beacon. A sinking feeling had begun in Harumi’s gut. She led the ninja home, feeling worse and worse as the black cloud disappeared behind them. 

“Back already?” Wu looked surprised to see them. Harumi could not meet his gaze. 

“There was nothing we could do.” Kai said. “We’re sorry, Sensei.” 

The feeling did not go away. She could not shake the feeling of guilt by laying in her room, nor writing in her journal, so she took to training. She rose before the sun and did not allow herself to rest until the sunset. If she had been stronger, if she had been there, she could have stopped it. The news reached the monastery of spinjitzu and the ninja had all gathered around as Kai read it out loud. The mystery surrounding the disaster remained, though the people of Ninjago suspected some kind of terrorist group. 

Harumi pushed herself harder than ever. She had to hone every skill to perfection. Even if she couldn’t change the past, she could make sure it never happened again. She would become stronger, and would be there before things went down. It was her destiny, after all, she had to be the Green Ninja. 

  
  
  
  


At first, he could not walk. He pulled himself forward, clawing and scratching his way out from beneath the fallen boards. His classmates had not been as lucky as he had. He could hear their weak voices, muffled by the debris which had crushed their small bodies. He squeezed his eyes closed and continued to claw his way forward. There was no time to stop and mourn. The smell of something burning was growing stronger with every passing second. 

When he gathered the strength, he began to crawl. He crawled away from the smoking ruins, through the dust and the dirt. Sweat dripped down his face, but he did not stop to raise a dirty sleeve to wipe it. 

He drew himself to his feet as soon as he gathered the strength. Black spots swam in his vision and pulsed in time with his rushing heartbeat. Still, he moved forward, taking stumbling steps as he fell. 

When he recovered his rhythm, he began to run. He did not stop running. He slowed down out of no choice of his own when his legs would no longer carry him, and he collapsed. 

Once more, he began to crawl, until he could no longer move. 

He woke up to bright lights and adults in doctor’s clothing. Every part of him ached, his body and his mind. A pounding headache shook him, and he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed the light would vanish before he opened them again. 

“The school?”

“Likely.” 

“Do we have a name?”

“No.”

“School records?”

“Probably destroyed.” 

“Hey, kid.”

He opened one eye. Two people in white coats stood before him. The first smiled gently, the second standing a little bit farther away with no expression at all. 

“Do you have a name?” The first asked. The second still said nothing. 

…

“Did you go to Darkley’s?”

…

“Hm. You’re quite the quiet one.” 


	3. The Quiet One

Lloyd Garmadon sat in front of the empty house, staring out towards the sunset. The wind blew gently, and he wished he had a jacket. A few stray strands of blond hair fell into his eyes, but his gaze was fixed upon the darkening sky. 

“Lloyd! Come inside!” 

A voice from the house called him back, and Lloyd stood. He brushed his hair back and stood slowly, taking a sweeping look at the horizon. They lived at the edge of the village. Before them was forest and beyond that was desert, and somewhere around that was a certain pile of rubble that he did not wish to return to. 

He turned back into the house, his footsteps heavy on the creaking wood. The house was nearly empty, only holding the bare essentials. Everything else had been packed in boxes and crates and had been taken in trucks to Ninjago City. He only had a few more days in this house, then their new apartment would be ready and they could finally leave. 

His parents sat at the table borrowed from a kind neighbour, dinner on paper plates and water in plastic cups. His mother beckoned him to the table, and he sat in the chair that had already been pulled out for him. 

The man and woman at the table were not his true parents. His father had been Lord Garmadon, but he had never known him well. Lord Garmadon had left when Lloyd had been young, giving him his name but nothing else. His mother had not wanted him. Like his father, his mother looked for the first chance she got to leave him behind. She had left him in that school and she had not returned. 

His adoptive parents had been looking for a child at the time he had arrived in the village. They took Lloyd in as soon as the doctors let him go and cared for him, but he did not feel the same way for them as they felt for him. They loved him as a child and they were doing well to raise him, but Lloyd could not bring himself to care. 

Why had Garmadon left? Lloyd did not know, but he asked himself the question every day as if one day he would wake up with an answer. 

The next two days crawled by with nothing to do in the empty house. Lloyd had kept one book with him, something about old Ninjago mythology. It had not particularly interested him before, but the skies began to pour rain and he could no longer spend his days outside. 

He began to read it, skimming the worn pages. Dragons. Humans with the power to command elements. A dark island, hidden beneath the ocean on the other half of the world. The Boiling Sea, a stretch of ocean with something treacherous hidden beneath it. 

Only one page caught his eye. 

The Oni Masks. 

He began to study the page, taking in every word twice, though there were not many words on each page. He studied the pictures, though in the end, he closed the book and did not think about it again for a long time. 

The ride into Ninjago City was long. Lloyd sat in the back seat of his parent’s small car, squeezed between suitcases and boxes with the last of their things. He stared out the window as the buildings became taller and taller, less farmland and more concrete. They stopped a few times along the way to eat something and stretch their legs. 

They finally stopped in the centre of the city, parking the car in a strange kind of place, and taking their things up more flights of stairs than Lloyd wanted to count. By the end of the day, he was exhausted and his parents were as well. 

On the first morning, he woke up in a disoriented daze. He stared around the strange room, towards the strange horizon outside of his window. His things were still in boxes in the large room he now had to himself. He slid off the mattress on the floor, stumbling towards the window. He studied the new view. He could get used to living here. 

Through his new neighbours, he heard tales of masked ninja. Apparently, elemental masters had not been simple village folklore. They showed up at the right times, the five of them, and saved people from unimaginable evils. 

Something clicked in Lloyd’s head. Where had the ninja been on that day? His mind ventured back to the school. He had not seen the ninja, and they did not save him from evil. He had only been lucky. The ninja had not saved him, nor had they saved his classmates. His neighbours began to praise the ninja, and Lloyd’s face twitched. He wrinkled his nose as he tuned their praise out, choosing to live within his own thoughts for a little while longer. 

They called it the Great Devourer. 

It crashed through the streets of Ninjago City in a mindless rage, crushing anything in its path without mercy. 

“We’re stuck.” Lloyd’s mother called, trying the door with tears in her eyes. A part of their apartment building had taken a glancing blow from the Devourer as it persuaded some kind of prey in the street below. Their apartment had not taken heavy damage yet, though it was simply a matter of time before it did. The hallway had collapsed, blocking their only exit. The height of the place prevented any hope of escape through the windows. Lloyd’s stomach churned as the remaining parts of the building swayed dangerously underneath his feet, but he could not move. 

His father made an attempt to push the door open, slamming into it from a short running start, but it did not budge. They were sealed in, and the building’s fate was theirs. 

A loud noise from outside shook the ground, making the building tremble on the verge of collapse. His mother began to sob, holding her face in her hands as she shook. She screamed into her hands as his father embraced her without words. Lloyd had never heard her so wrecked, so defeated. The miserable sound spurred him to his feet, and he ran into his bedroom to escape it. 

The Devourer was just outside. It faced someone who Lloyd recognised from a deep memory- his father, wielding the Golden Weapons. Lloyd ran to his window, pressed against it so close that his breath fogged up the glass. He quickly wiped the fog away, his hands remaining on the cool pane. 

His father was there. Lloyd wanted to cry out, but he knew his father would not hear him. Why? Why did you leave? He hit the glass as he began to cry. Hot tears clouded his vision, but he did not want to lose sight of his father. 

For a moment, Lloyd wished the battle would not end, so that he could see his father just a second longer. He lost sight of it too soon, but he knew what had happened. 

His father had defeated the Devourer. The ninja had been credited with the day. His father had left, again. His father had not looked at him. 

He watched the news broadcast from a family friend’s television, sitting in between his parents in a small house far from the wrecked parts of the city. It had taken a long time, but they had finally been rescued. Nobody spoke much and nobody did much. Lloyd clutched his mythology book against his chest, not feeling much of anything. The room was almost full with other families like his, scared and quiet, staring at the TV. 

The reporter stood in front of the palace where the Emperor and Empress lived, with the five ninja and their old master. A bit of anger rose in Lloyd as he stared at them, breaking the monotony of his numbness. The ninja smiled at the camera and at the crowd as reporters took pictures and asked questions. 

The Emperor and Empress gave a short address, thanking the ninja for their good work. Lloyd’s mouth twisted into a frown. The ninja had not saved anybody. He remembered the way his mother had cried. He remembered the way he had stared out the window and thought that there was no way to escape out of it, how his thought had been interrupted by the falling body of an upstairs neighbour, how he had thought that the escape attempt was foolish, and when he realised that the man’s intentions had never been to escape with his life. 

He remembered that his father had been the one to defeat the Devourer, but the reporter did not mention his name. Lloyd held his book tighter, unsure of why he had brought it with him when the firemen came with their ladders and empty reassuring words. 

The Emperor was the only one who spoke as the Empress stood quietly beside him, adorned in jewels and rich silk. The Emperor acknowledged each of the ninja by name and praised them. He spoke for the longest to the one in green. He congratulated her and Lloyd saw true pride in his eyes when he called her his daughter. 

He longed for something like that, but he knew that that wish would not be granted. His father had not looked at him. He put his hands over his ears to block out the sound of the old television, squeezing as tight as he could before he was sure his skull would split open from the pressure. 

He lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling. He shared the tiny guest bedroom with his parents and another family whose home had been destroyed. There was only one bed, which was taken by the parents of the other family and their newborn child held between them. The rest of the people slept on roll-out pads or the floor. Lloyd had been lucky enough to have a pillow to rest his head on. 

Something clicked in his mind as he stared up at the darkness. Harumi had earned her father’s love. He would have to, as well. His father had not looked at him because he had not done anything to be deserving of it. He could not catch the gaze of Lord Garmadon from the edge of the battle. He would have to do more. 

One day, he told himself as he rolled over on the thin pad, hugging the thin sheet tighter to his body. One day. 

He began to doze off as the beginnings of a plan pieced themselves together in his tired mind. 


	4. Her Father’s Love

Harumi stood alone in front of the doors of Sensei Garmadon’s monastery. She closed her eyes, carefully extending one hand to push the doors open. She flinched as her hand made contact with the wood and the doors opened slowly. The doors were not very heavy to her, and she pushed through them with her shoulder. She closed them carefully behind herself, not turning her back to the dirt path ahead of her. 

The monastery was certainly alive and she sensed no malice within its walls. The other ninja believed that Garmadon was doing well to atone for his crimes by swearing himself to a life of peace, and Harumi wanted to believe it as well. 

The day was still bright, though night was fast approaching. The monastery was a long ride from New Ninjago City, where Wu forced her and the other ninja to humour his wish to be teachers by day. 

“I’m a ninja.” Harumi had laughed nervously. “What could I possibly teach them?”

“Ninjago history.” Kai had suggested. “You’re also the princess, you should know something about it.” 

“The royal family is like a figurehead. They don’t have any real power. It’s just tradition.” Harumi had said. “Besides, I don’t think children are very interested in that.” 

Wu was very firm and did not let her avoid this responsibility. 

“You just want to do it because your brother’s teaching kids, too, right?” Kai had asked, to no response from Wu. 

Harumi left as soon as she could after school, changing into her much-more-comfortable green gi. She parked her bike just outside the monastery, leaving her weapons behind in its secret compartment. 

She found Sensei Garmadon where Wu had said she would find him in one of the more central buildings of the place. She waited nervously just outside the door, her old habit of holding her hands clasped together in front of her resurfacing once again. She stood up a little straighter, pulling her shoulders back and searching for appropriate first words to say. 

“May I enter?” She asked. 

Sensei Garmadon turned away from the small altar, though Harumi could not tell to whom it was dedicated at first glance. 

“Yes. Come in.” He smiled, and Harumi allowed herself to cross the threshold. 

They sat on the floor mats, facing each other, alone together in the room. Harumi had brought some questions for him, questions which had been bothering her for a long time. She asked them, and Garmadon did his best to answer them. They were questions about everything, questions about the elemental powers, the nature of the Golden Weapons, the nature of Ninjago. They were questions she had asked Wu, but he had not given her a clear answer. In her frustration, she had turned to Garmadon in the hopes that he would give her the answer that Wu would not. 

Harumi respected Wu, but he was a man of many secrets. 

Sorrow played across Garmadon’s face when she pushed him to answer her questions about the Golden Weapons and the Serpentine Wars. Those were questions, he told her, that could have been asked to a younger version of himself. He had seen too much fighting in his life and wanted nothing more than to escape it. 

Still, he answered her questions. 

How had she come to be the Green Ninja? Neither of her parents were elemental masters. 

“The element of Energy is a strange one.” Garmadon had mused. “Perhaps destiny chose the one most worthy to wield it, regardless of her parentage.” 

He invited Harumi to visit again, and she did. It was not very often at first, only when she had questions for him, but over time she started spending more and more of her time off there. They quickly grew close, becoming like friends and then like family. 

She understood why he had to sacrifice himself to halt Chen’s crazy ambition, but it felt like she was losing her father. Then, she had to sacrifice him again in the belly of the Preeminent to save Ninjago once more. He told her not to mourn- if he could sacrifice himself to save Ninjago, then he would accept that fate with grace. Still, she wept. She had sworn that she would never let anybody be hurt again, but the longer she tried to keep that promise, the more impossible it felt. 

The Devourer had brought Ninjago City to its knees and left more dead than living to bury them in some parts of the city. She had failed to save them, as she had failed to save Morro, as she had failed to save her father. 

After the battle with the Devourer, the Emperor had congratulated her and called her his daughter, but she could tell that he did not mean his words. They were for the press, not for her. She had smiled politely for the cameras. She had never thought of him as her father. 

Ever since she had been a little girl, she had read books about children and their parents, how they had loved each other as family. She had snuck looks at the Emperor and Empress, but she had not been able to see her stories in them. Garmadon had given her everything that they couldn’t. 

That no longer mattered. He was gone. 

  
  
  
  


He was gone. He had been gone for a very long time. 

Lloyd scowled at the newspaper he had taken from his adoptive father. Ninjago City had been rebuilt after the Devourer, and though the city no longer carried the scars of the battle, they were still fresh wounds in his mind. 

‘Sensei Garmadon’ had died. That did not matter. Lord Garmadon had been dead for a long time, replaced by an empty shell of a man sworn to peace, sworn to a path of good. Revolting. It made Lloyd sick. 

Garmadon’s change had done nothing to change the hate within Lloyd’s heart. Actually, on the contrary. It had done everything to change the hate within Lloyd’s heart for the worst. Garmadon had changed for the better. Lloyd smiled, proud to know that he could never say the same. 

His father had lost himself. Lloyd had to help him find himself again. He would help his father regain his strength and earn his respect. 

The pieces of his plan finally began to finish falling into place, though there were still a few loose ends. 

He could give his father power, but he still had a few more people that he would like to deal with. 

The ninja had not protected him. They had been falsely credited with the day they did not save. They smiled for the cameras like movie stars, and none of them had known a day of the pain Lloyd had felt. He would make them feel his pain. One day, he would make sure that they felt what he had felt, what all of Ninjago had felt, the day of their greatest failure. 

Harumi was the worst ninja of all. To say she was the most worthy one among them was a glorious lie that Lloyd refused to believe. Worst of all, she had earned his broken father’s love. Who was she to have what he couldn’t? He was the son of Garmadon. His father should have chosen him to love, so why would he pick her? He had not been in his right mind. He would show him the truth, that Lloyd was the one deserving of his love, and he would make Harumi suffer the worst of all, and remind her that she had no place to call Garmadon her father. 

His broken father had sworn himself to peace at the feet of the Emperor and Empress, and for that, Lloyd chose to hate them as well. After all, hating the Emperor and Empress could earn him some dangerous friends. 

He and his dangerous friends bided their time, waiting from the shadows for their perfect moment. Each tick of the clock’s second hand brought him closer to the hour of his revenge. 

Lloyd listened to the gentle ticking of his alarm clock, staring up at the ceiling. His plan consumed every waking hour like an insatiable hunger. The more he thought about it, the more restless he became. He hugged his journal tightly to his chest. It held the pages torn out from his mythology book, and pages and pages of notes and research and details and plans. He hid it from his adoptive parents. They could not know. Nobody could know until he was ready, but once he was ready, all of Ninjago would know his name. 


	5. The Hour of His Revenge

They came at night, maybe six of them in the group, all wearing masks and something resembling armour. They wielded swords, though Harumi could tell who had trained and who had not. One took an awkward stance, glancing behind themself every other second. A few held their blades warily at arms length. One in particular wielded their twin blades with mechanical precision. They walked in silence. Perhaps they had not been breathing. Harumi could not believe that they were walking, rather, they floated just above the ground. 

The others’ breathing was muffed by their helmets, identically decorated but of vastly different make and model. One appeared to be a size much too big for its owner. Except for the one in red, Harumi could tell that they were a ragtag team thrown together not very long ago. She would believe that a few of them had not had any formal training at all. 

Their target was clear. An Oni mask, owned by Cyrus Borg. The one in red had little trouble retrieving it, cold and calculating as clockwork. 

Harumi crashed their little party once she had learned enough. 

The lights of New Ninjago City swirled and flashed beneath her as she leapt and spun through the air as if gravity no longer bound her to the ground. She pursued the red one, the mask in one of their hands. The others had easily dropped, right into the hands and handcuffs of New Ninjago City’s police. The red one proved more of a challenge. 

“Pix! Bike, please!” Harumi called, watching the freeway fast approaching. 

“Yes, Master Harumi.” Pixal’s smooth voice filled her earpiece. 

“You know how to find me.” She said, turning her attention back to her target. They moved too expertly to have been trained by any master, too perfectly to be human, though the mask was still tightly clutched in their hand and Harumi’s task was to retrieve it. Clearly, both of them had been sent to the mask, and one of them would not return home happy. 

The mystery man met with his vehicle, crashing dangerously onto the road below and speeding east down the freeway. 

Harumi met her motorcycle in midair as her opponent had, gasping once as she hit the seat and once again as the bike met the road. She quickly pulled her goggles from beneath her hood, adjusting their fit on her face with one hand but never taking her eye off her target. 

“I’ve got it from here.” Harumi said. 

“If you say so.” Pixal said unreassuringly, and turned off her bike’s autopilot. It veered dangerously to the side for a moment before Harumi wrestled control back. She followed the stranger, following his glaring red taillights as they streaked through the night. 

He turned on a dime as they approached the interchange, making a few careful turns and riding through the westbound traffic still due east. Cars honked, swerving to avoid the masked man as he drove, unfazed, through the oncoming onslaught of traffic. Harumi narrowed her eyes, speeding up as fast as her bike would go. Cars collided as they swerved to avoid the mystery man, two to Harumi’s left and quite a few to her right. She drove through the opening the mystery man had created, moving to the right to ride right on the line dividing the lanes as quickly as she could. 

In her caution, she had lost her target. She quickly found him again, his lights standing out against the white headlights. He was too far ahead and moving too fast. Harumi would need to cut him off. 

“Pixal, can you tell me where they’re going?” Harumi yelled, the wind tearing the sound from her voice. 

“I cannot. They appear to be going east, but I cannot access their GPS.” 

“Where does this highway end?” 

“It goes all the way to and through the desert.” 

“Is there a way to cut them off?” 

“If we do not know their destination, then I am afraid not.” 

Harumi waited for the next break in traffic to move to the shoulder lane, slowing to a stop. It would be pointless and a waste of fuel to pursue him farther. Harumi 

pulled her hood off, setting the goggles on her forehead and wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. 

“Get the team back together.” 

And one Oni mask fell into Lloyd’s hands. 

“I need a favour.” 

“And what would the Green Ninja need?”

“Please. Think of it as a favour for an old friend.” 

Hutchins cracked a smile. 

“You ought to use the door, old friend.” 

“I’m a ninja.” Harumi grinned. “Ninja don’t need doors.” 

She had entered the palace courtyard over the back wall, where she had known that the guards had a blind spot and prayed that there still was. There wasn’t much time to ask for an audience and even less time to explain why she needed Hutchins. 

“You need to take the Oni mask and hide it again. Keep it a secret.” Harumi said, her voice dropping so that only she, Hutchins, and the wind between them could hear her. “Somebody is trying to collect them. One’s already been stolen.”

“By who?” 

“I’m not sure.” Harumi said. “There were six of them, one got away, and the other five aren’t talking. One did say something, though. It got my attention.” 

She had stood in the corner while two police officers interrogated one of the detained. He has said next to nothing, save one phrase.

“You’ll never stop the Sons of Garmadon!” 

He hadn’t said anything else of use. Harumi had looked up at the name, remembering it and repeating it in her head until she got back to the empty Monastery of Spinjitzu to ask Pixal to search for anything and everything she could find using the name. 

She hadn’t come up with much. An insignia. Only one name. No previous crimes. Harumi saved the picture of its insignia. The name had been Garmadon’s. She knew everything she had to know about him. 

“Sons of Garmadon.” She had mused, leaning over the computer. “I can’t remember him talking about a child.” 

“He did consider you his daughter.” Pixal had said, as much as she could say from the computer screen. “But that is all I know.” 

“Did he have a wife? Husband?”

“He did have a wife, some time ago.” 

“Find her.” 

“The Sons of Garmadon.” Harumi told Hutchins. “They use this symbol.” She pulled up the image and showed it to him, and he nodded. “Do you know anything about it?”

“I am afraid not.” Hutchins said. “But I will look after the mask.” 

“Where will you take it?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.”

Harumi knew she could entrust the task to Hutchins. She left the way she had come. The sky was growing brighter, but she still had somebody else to visit. 

“I’m looking for Mystaké?” Harumi asked, pushing open the tea shop’s door. It was empty, save for an old woman hunched over the counter, sorting something beneath it. She had the same aged look at Wu, as if wisdom, not age, had made her grow old. 

“Mystaké? Never heard of her!” The old woman called. 

“Please. I need to talk to her.” Harumi said. “I’m doing… research.” She said. “It’s for a school project.” 

She’d never felt particularly bad for lying. She’d lied to the Emperor and Empress. She’d lied to Hutchins, on occasion. It had been more convenient for her then and it was more convenient for her now. She didn’t know enough about her problem at hand to explain herself with the truth. 

“You’re lying.” Mystaké said curtly. 

“Huh?” 

“You’re lying. I see it in your eyes. What do you really want?” 

Harumi sighed. 

“I need to know about the Oni masks.”

“Why?” 

“Someone’s after them. I don’t know why, but they’re up to no good.” Harumi said. “Please. I need your help. Wu’s gone, Garmadon’s gone, and I don’t know who else to talk to.” 

“What do you need to know?” 

Mystaké told her things that Wu wouldn’t. Things about the Oni and the Dragons, things about the Oni masks, things about Wu and Garmadon and herself. Harumi listened, sitting in the back of the tea shop while Mystaké told her the stories. Still, she couldn’t quite piece together what any of the information had to do with each other. Garmadon had never mentioned any children. Who could the Sons of Garmadon possibly be? What could they want? Garmadon had been a good man, at the end of his life. What could his legacy do with the Oni Masks? 

She thanked Mystaké as many times as she could on her way out. 

“Did you find the wife?” Harumi asked Pixal through her earpiece. “Bike, please, Pix.” 

“Right away, Master Harumi. I found a little bit of information about his wife.” 

“What do we know?”

“Her name is Misako. She worked at the Ninjago History Museum, but I cannot find any information from the last two years.” Pixal said. “It’s as if she vanished.”

“Dead?” Harumi took a quick look across the street, running across to meet her bike. As soon as she got on, Pixal gave her back control and Harumi got to drive herself home. 

“If she had died, I would be able to find a death certificate.” 

“Did she have any children?”

“None recorded.” 

Harumi frowned. 

“Any other partners?”

“None that I could find. I advise you to hurry back. The ninja are waiting for you.”

  
  
  


“An Oni mask?”

“The Oni mask!”

“Didn’t we send five of us out to get it?”

“Six.”

“Who’s that guy?”

The Sons of Garmadon gathered beneath the city, in the abandoned subway station they’d taken and made their own. One among them stood out. The one with the mask. 

“Can we touch it?”

“Let me hold it!”

“Is it the real deal?”

“Only the Quiet One touches the mask.” Killow bellowed, his voice slapping the prying hands away. 

“We left with six and came back with one.” A voice called from the crowd. “How do we tell the Quiet One that?”

“We have the mask. That’s what the Quiet One wanted.” Killow said. 

That was, indeed, all the Quiet One wanted. He met Mr. E in the tunnels, taking the mask without a word passing between them. He looked at it and inspected it carefully, each and every crack and crevice, where it was chipped on the side from some previous battle. Power coursed through it. Power unlike anything Lloyd had felt before. Power enough to bring Ninjago to its knees. Power enough to buy him respect. He smiled in the dark, Mr. E standing in perfect silence. 

Lloyd gave Mr. E the mask to keep and use. Mr. E was loyal to him. He could trust the robot, because he was just that. He was a robot, a nindroid, programmed to be true to him and nobody else. Of all the Sons of Garmadon, Lloyd could only be certain that he could trust Mr. E. 

As for the other five who had left for the mask with him, they easily slipped his mind. They were fools, who could easily spill secrets, but none of them had known his goals. The masks were all he cared about, for now. He had one now. They had taken it quietly. Cyrus Borg had quite a collection of artifacts, surely he wouldn’t mind Lloyd borrowing one. 

The next of the masks would take a little more to get. The third would be the hardest. One day at a time, Lloyd told himself, one day at a time. 

Lloyd went home as if nothing had happened. He blended into the crowd of afternoon traffic exiting the subway.

“I’m home.” He called. 

“How was school?” His adoptive mother called. His fake mother, standing in the other room. 

“Good!” Lloyd put on a smile, dropping his backpack by the door. It held books, pens, paper- but he hadn’t been at school. He hadn’t been to school for a long time. It made him feel on-edge. Anxious. As if something could happen at any time. The building could collapse. The building could explode. Each ordinary creak and crash sent his heart and mind racing. 

“What’d you learn today?” He hadn’t been able to learn anything for a long time. After all, he already knew everything he had to. About his real father. About his real mother. 

“Things.” Lloyd shrugged. 

“That’s what you said yesterday.” His fake father said, putting on his hat. He moved behind Lloyd to leave. He had found new work in New Ninjago City, a night shift at one of Cyrus Borg’s factories. “What kind of things?”

“We learned about the Oni.” Lloyd said. 

“Those bedtime stories?” His fake father asked. 

“Not just bedtime stories. They’re real.” 

“What kind of things are they teaching you?” His fake father ruffled Lloyd’s hair. It took everything he had not to wrinkle his nose and back away from the touch. “See you in the morning, son.”

“Bye, Dad!” 

The Oni were real. With luck, all of Ninjago would know it. No, Lloyd told himself, not luck. His plan. His carefully-crafted plan. His perfect plan he’d spent everything on. 

He watched the royal palace, waiting for the right time. The Emperor and Empress had one of the Oni Masks. The fact was rather convenient for him. Most of the Sons of Garmadon were a different kind of people. They couldn’t understand what his father was to him or why he had to do what he had to do, but putting a target on the heads of Ninjago’s Emperor and Empress was enough to convince them that they wanted the same things. They were simple people, disposable henchmen for Lloyd to hire, and he wanted all the hands he could get. 

Harumi returned to the palace, and Lloyd knew that it wasn’t for a father-daughter reunion. The other ninja were with her, welcomed into the palace without ceremony, but the palace was a rather public place. Nothing that went in or out went unnoticed. They were there to guard the Oni mask. Lloyd just knew. After all, what else could they be there for? He told his disposable henchmen it was time, and his revolution started with a bang and a cheer as the royal palace went up in flames. 

He was careful to be caught in the riots. Crossing paths with the ninja didn’t hinder his plans. Actually, he was thankful that they had involved themselves. It made his work a little too easy. 

“Help!” He called into the fires. It had been easy enough to sneak into the burning palace under the cover of all the chaos. “Anyone?!” He began to panic, the fires suddenly too hot, the air thin and suffocating. A section of the ceiling groaned, splintering and missing Lloyd by almost nothing. The roof on its way to collapse and bring the upper levels with it. A gamble Lloyd should never have made. 

“Nya! Zane! Put out as much of the fire as you can! Cole, you go that way, get as many people out as you can. I’ll go this way. Jay! Kai! Don’t let them get the mask!” Lloyd heard Harumi’s voice. 

“HELP!” He spun and yelled in Harumi’s direction. He had been here too long. The room around him began to grow blurry. Shallow breathing. The room swaying on its own. All sounds a little too faint for comfort. 

Harumi appeared in the doorway. She shouted something to him, but he couldn’t make it out. He collapsed to his knees through no choice of his own. Harumi must have carried him out. He felt grass beneath his hands and back and gasped for breath. 

“Are you alright?” Nya asked. He hadn’t noticed her until she had stopped right beside her. She walked quietly, and her grey and blue gi blended into the evening. 

Lloyd found himself staring at her, then remembered his character. He quickly shook his head. 

“I- my parents!” Lloyd exclaimed. “Where are they?” 

“Who are your parents?” Nya asked. 

Lloyd lied, describing people he knew didn’t exist. Servants, personal staff to the Empress. A man and a woman. He watched Nya’s gaze become fearful as he went into more detail. 

“I’m sorry.” Nya whispered. “We saved everyone that we could.” 

“You mean…”

“I’m sorry.” 

Perfect. 

“We’re sorry, Harumi.” Jay said mournfully. They stood on the deck of the ninja’s flying ship. The Destiny’s Bounty. 

“We failed.” Kai said. “They got the mask.” 

It took everything in Lloyd not to grin. Another mask had fallen into his hands. 

“Then they almost have all of them.” Harumi muttered. “We have to get moving.” 

“But we still do not know the location of the third mask.” Zane said. 

“Mask?” Lloyd asked, keeping his own mask on, his innocent expression. 

“Who is this?” Cole asked. 

“This is Lloyd. His parents… didn’t make it out.” Nya said. “He said he has family just outside the city, but I don’t think we’ll find them in this mess.” 

“Like the Oni Masks?” Lloyd asked. 

“How do you know about the Oni Masks?” Kai narrowed his eyes. 

“The Emperor and Empress have one.” Lloyd said. “And they said it was one of three.” 

“What do you know about the Oni Masks?” Harumi asked. 

“There were three. The Emperor and Empress have one, a collector has one, and nobody knows where the third one is. They say an adventurer found it and made a map, but nobody can find the map either, and even if you had the map it’s almost impossible to reach it.” 

That much was true. That was the part Lloyd needed the ninja for. He would never be able to get to the mask on his own, and they were a ride straight to it.

“Go on.” Kai said. 

“When the masks come together, they can make a portal. They can bring back an Oni from the dead.” Lloyd said. “But on their own, they’re powerful. My parents always said not to get too close.” 

“A map.” Harumi frowned. “We have to get it before the Sons of Garmadon.”

“Sons of Garmadon?” Lloyd asked. Hopefully his innocence didn’t sound fake. It had been a long time since he had felt anything like it. 

“The gang responsible for this.” Zane explained. “Little is known about them.”

Lloyd pretended to think for a moment. 

“Hmm.”

“What is it, Lloyd?” Nya asked.

“I think I’ve heard that before.” Lloyd looked up into the faces of the ninja. On TV, they had been smiling. In person, they looked a little more real. A little younger. A little smaller. A little more like him. It was enough to make him stumble over his thoughts. “I was- I was exploring. I found an abandoned subway tunnel a-and I went in. There were people in there, and they said… ‘don’t come down here! This place belongs to the Sons of Garmadon!’.”

“Where was that?” Harumi asked. “Please. I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you found their headquarters… we need your help.” 

“Really?” Lloyd asked, eyes widening. 

He told them it would be his honour to help the ninja, his heroes. They looked more desperate than honoured. 

They retrieved the map that Lloyd had been careful to put somewhere just hidden enough that they could find it. They returned with it, relieved and excited. Lloyd felt the same way, but not for the same reason. Manipulating the ninja was so much easier than he had thought it would be. It was almost too easy. 

They offered to take Lloyd someplace safe, but Lloyd refused. He wanted to help the ninja, he said. The ninja looked at each other warily. 

“We can’t.” Harumi said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“They killed my parents.” Lloyd lied. “I want to help you.”

“I can’t risk anything happening to you.” Harumi said. Couldn’t she see that she already had? She had taken everything from him. Maybe she had forgotten, but he hadn’t. 

“He got us the map.” Zane said. “And he seems to know something about the Masks. Maybe he could be useful.” 

It took some time, and Lloyd began to fear that he was going to lose his ride to the Oni mask. He had gambled by giving them the map. If it didn’t pay off, he didn’t know what to do. Maybe he could beat them to the destination, but they were the only ones who could get him to the mask.

He had not gambled in vain. Harumi gave in. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling this time. 

They set off for the third Oni Mask, the ninja racing against the Sons of Garmadon, Lloyd winning either way. Victory on the horizon right next to the sun as the Bounty bore onwards, full speed ahead, the wind in Lloyd’s hair and New Ninjago City behind him. He laughed. Victory at last. 

“It’s really something else, isn’t it?” Harumi asked. Lloyd jumped, surprised by how quiet all the ninja managed to walk. 

“Huh?” Lloyd asked, quick to get back into his character. 

“It’s so peaceful here.” Harumi smiled, pulling the hair sticks out of her bun and letting her long hair down to move as the wind desired. She held them in her hand, leaning onto the railing of the Bounty. She was much younger in person. Lloyd’s age. None of the makeup she had worn on TV. Her green gi sleeves rolled to her elbows. Had they been too long for her?

“You’re Princess Harumi.” Lloyd said. 

“Please.” She smiled. “Just Harumi.” 

“What’s it like?” Lloyd settled, copying the way she crossed her arms on the thick wooden railing. “Being the Jade Princess and the Green Ninja?” 

“I can’t tell.” Harumi looked out towards the horizon and Lloyd followed her gaze. “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

“I’ve never felt like either.” She murmured. “I didn’t feel like the princess. I was never happy. I didn’t know anyone, I never got to do anything. I had to sneak out of the palace to even see the outside world. It was a shock every time. When Wu- he was my teacher- told me I was destined to be a ninja, I didn’t know what to think. I felt like a ninja for a while, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

He hadn’t cared about the question, but her answer surprised him. 

“Really?” Lloyd asked. He couldn’t bring himself to coat the question with more words. 

“I know I can’t save everyone, but I can’t help but think I should.” Harumi looked down at the ground beneath as it sped by in a blur. “And if I couldn’t go back to the palace before, I really can’t now.”

“You lost your parents, too.” 

“We have that in common.” Harumi said. “Are you alright?” 

“Not really.” 

“You want to talk?”

“Not really.”

“I’m here, if you change your mind.” 

“Thank you.” 

Harumi’s words had given him something to think about, but it would take more than that to change Lloyd’s mind. After all, things were already in motion. One more mask and he could have everything he’d ever wanted. 


End file.
